pişmaniye — Turkey

Pişmaniye is a confection reported from Turkey, made by pulling sugar into fine strands mixed with flour that has been roasted in butter. The result looks a little like cotton candy but has a different texture, closer to fine, slightly chewy threads that melt on the tongue. It is associated across Turkey with the town of Izmit, on the Sea of Marmara, though it is made and sold well beyond that area today, including in shops that ship it elsewhere. It is often dusted or mixed with ground pistachio. Flour is roasted slowly until it turns pale and fragrant, then worked with melted butter into a smooth paste. Separately, sugar, glucose syrup, and water are cooked into a syrup and pulled by hand on an oiled surface until it turns opaque and elastic. The roasted flour is folded into the pulled sugar in stages, and the whole mass is stretched and folded repeatedly until it separates into thousands of fine strands, a technique close to the pulling used for some other Middle Eastern and Central Asian sweets. It used to be made at home in many regions, though that habit has become rare, and production today is mostly done by confectioners, with machines helping in parts of the pulling and roasting. The ratio of flour to sugar, the degree of roasting, and whether pistachio is added or left out vary from one maker to another, giving each batch a slightly different color and bite.